Artistic Expression
by artlessICTOAN
Summary: After deciding to try out makeup for the first time and failing in her experiments, Hinata's girlfriends decide to provide their 'assistance' (or why Temari should never be allowed near an eyeshadow brush ever). Polyamory, KaruHinaTema, Modern AU, trans girl Hina.


day 3 of femslash week (polyamory) a bit longer than the others so far but it was fun to write, enjoy folks!

* * *

Her hand was trembling as she painstakingly painted a single line, her breathing shallow and rapid. If she didn't calm herself down quickly, Hinata was going to end up taking her own eye out, but she just couldn't bring her arm under her complete control, not even when she brought her free hand to steady it – if anything, that just made her shaking even _worse_.

Finally, her liner was complete; she opened her eye to see the result. It immediately disappeared underneath her eyelid. She had to restrain the urge to growl as she pressed a little closer to the mirror and – keeping her eye open this time – drew another line across her skin.

Blinking at her reflection, she couldn't help but grimace. She leaned back in the hopes that maybe it just looked so bad because she was staring at point-blank range, but the extra distance didn't really make the black streak across her eyelid any less wobbly.

Crying would definitely just make her terrible attempt at winged eyeliner even more smudgy, but she really was tempted to break down; just for a few minutes.

It was safe to say that she failed hard at makeup. Maybe the foundation kind of worked, if you didn't mind it being half an inch thick, and it was difficult to mess up lipstick, though she wished she'd gone with a different shade, but her eyes were completely unsalvageable. She really should've watched some videos before attempting this, but she'd been rummaging through dresser drawers trying to find her contact cleaner and there were some old bottles that Temari had probably gotten for her birthday and never bothered to use sitting _right there_ and before she'd really registered what she was doing the tiny four year-old who'd sit on her mother's lap while she was doing her makeup had pulled the cap off the lipstick and now she had _this_ mess to deal with.

Hinata sighed, rummaging around the dresser for tissues when the faint click of the door being opened made her jump. Hand pressed against her thudding heart, she turned to face her girlfriend, who was already apologising for scaring her – she could never resent Temari's habit of creeping around the house in near-total silence, but that didn't mean she had to like it – before she actually took the time to really look her up and down.

Quite obviously biting back a smirk, she gestured vaguely to Hinata's face. "Bold look you're going for there."

Giving her girlfriend the blankest look she was capable of – and she'd had a _lot_ of practice from listening to her father's transphobic comments throughout her childhood – she returned to opening drawers until she found the makeup remover. "Your entire face is a bold look, but you don't hear me talking about it."

Five years ago, she never would've dared say anything like that to anyone, not even behind their back, but her girlfriends had been encouraging her to let her 'sassy thoughts' out, if only because they got a kick out of the disconnect between her sweet, feminine image and her surprisingly sharp comments, especially when there were others around to gap in shock.

"Wow, not pulling any punches today are we?" Temari was laughing hard, her giant grin showing off her dimples.

Hinata couldn't help smiling a little herself; they were just so _cute_.

"Seriously though, what's with all this?"

It took a long while to find an answer, time she spent staring at her reflection and overlaying it with the image she'd had in her head. "I… just wanted to try it."

There was a small huff from her side, before Temari wiggled her way between Hinata and the dresser, sitting down on it as she pressed her rough-skinned hands to either side of her face. Her thumbs rubbed gently under her eyes as she said, "It's for _you_ , right? Not because it's what people expect from you, or because they don't have the right eyes to see how perfect you are or-"

"It's for me," she said, giggling and laying her own hands over Temari's. "I just think it's so beautiful, to be able to paint your truest self onto your skin… it's like your tattoos, I just want another way to express myself."

Dark eyes stared deeply into hers for what felt like a lifetime, but eventually her girlfriend was satisfied with whatever she found there. "Alright, good. Now shuffle back a bit so I can fix this."

She blinked as she tried to digest Temari's implication.

"Oh, don't give me that look!" Slapping lightly at her arm, Temari forcibly pushed her chair back a few inches and settled more comfortably on the dresser, picking up the pack of baby wipes and fighting with the seal.

Hinata had to bite her lip, eyeing her girlfriend's completely bare face doubtfully. "Are you sure you know what you're doing? I mean, you're kinda butch…"

Temari rolled her dark eyes, flapping a wipe in one hand before slapping it to Hinata's cheek. "I'm _very_ butch, thank you." Apparently, she still didn't look very impressed, because she rubbed away at her forehead harder than was strictly necessary. "C'mon, I've seen both my brothers do this a million times before, how hard could it possibly be?"

* * *

"…Temari what the fuck are you doing to our baby girl?"

Perhaps she should've jumped to her defence, but honestly at this point Hinata was too horrified by her own reflection to even look at Karui as she walked into their bedroom.

"Shut up, I can still make this work!"

Karui's face appeared in the mirror, one brow raised and her mouth pulled into a tight line. "Kinda looks like you've just punched her in the eyes a couple times and then bit her entire mouth – is that supposed to be _lip-liner_?"

Slapping their meddling girlfriend away, Temari pulled at Hinata's chin and swiped a foundation laden brush under her eyes – a poor attempt to cover up the deep plum eyeshadow that she'd been more than a little overeager with – all while snapping, "I. Can. Do. This."

"And by 'this' you mean 'make our beautiful angel look like a sleep-deprived clown?' If so then good job."

"If you're just going to criticise you can do it somewhere else, I'm trying to concentrate here, besides, Hina thinks I'm doing a good job, right babe?" She didn't bother replying, because anything she might say would only be ignored when the stubborn woman had a point to prove, but hopefully her expression would get her feelings on the matter across quite well. "See, she loves it."

Karui's mouth dropped open in horror when Temari reached for an eyeshadow pallet, selected the glittery gold one and spread it across one eyelid.

"Ok, no, see you're just drawing attention to the piss-poor job you've done, here, stop, just-" Placing one hand fully over Temari's face, Karui pushed until she was forced to abandon the dresser and immediately took her place, already reaching for the makeup remover. She was gentler in wiping her face clean than Temari was, but Hinata was still fidgeting nervously in her seat when she started eyeing the collection of tubes.

"Is adding _another_ butch to the equation really the best idea?" she asked, berating herself for ever trying this out in the first place; if only because her girlfriends were both too competitive to ever let an opportunity to one-up each other slide. "I can just look up some tutorials or something…"

Already squeezing out a little foundation onto the back of her hand, Karui shook her head. "Nope, I'm gonna do this right, my girl deserves nothing but the best! Now what kinda look are you going for?"

"I-" she frowned when, instead of reaching for the brush, Karui instead picked up some moisturiser and added a blob next to the foundation, then gradually mixed the two products together "-I guess something natural… I did want to draw attention to my eyes though."

Loading a brush with the combined liquid, she set to work.

It was already off to a better start than either of the two previous attempts – mixing the foundation with moisturiser seemed to have lightened it to a shade that better matched her skin and Karui was much more sparing with the product, by the time she was done with it Hinata could barely even feel anything on her face. Next was the highlighter that she'd been too nervous to try out herself, carefully applied to her cheekbones, a light sweep of blush underneath that, finished off with a dusting of that unmarked powder that she'd had no idea how to use.

At some point Temari had leaned in to glare at the work being done. "How the fuck are you so good at this, I've literally never seen you wear makeup."

Karui snorted and leaned back to scrutinise the small selection of lipsticks available, saying, "Yeah, _that's_ how good I am; you think this jawline is natural?" She held up two in front of Hinata, pursing her lips before chucking one back on the dresser and taking hold of Hinata's chin, tilting it until she had full access to her lips.

"Seriously?" Temari sounded unimpressed for about five seconds before bursting out laughing.

Carefully swiping a lipstick-coated finger across Hinata's mouth, Karui glanced at their girlfriend with a very familiar look, Hinata had to giggle slightly in agreement – receiving a flick to the nose for almost messing up Karui's stroke.

"We can't all be blessed with cheekbones that could slice through metal-" she turned to Temari with her most obnoxious grin "-just like we can't all know how to draw a straight fucking line."

The laughter stopped dead. "Her eyes kept moving, how am I supposed to work with that!"

She was pointedly ignored by the artist, who was too busy dabbing a small brush in the dark grey powder and telling Hinata to close her eyes. The gentle pressure at the lower edge of her eyelid made her try to blink, but as the sensation continued the urge to shudder grew weaker, every time there was a brief respite she wanted to open them again, but Karui's tutting quickly taught her to just keep them shut until instructed otherwise.

It was a little exciting though, having no idea what was going on, only the strokes against sensitive skin and Temari's noises of annoyed admiration – an emotion she expressed so often that Hinata could pick it up a mile off, even without seeing her cute, pouting face – to guide her expectations. At some point colours must've been changed, because the power felt just slightly different, a little heavier, and a breathy 'Ohhh' was released to her left.

She was fidgeting in her seat like a child waiting for their birthday cake to be revealed, burrowing both hands under her thighs just to keep them from flapping, biting the inside of her cheek so she wouldn't bite her lips and mess them up, heart hammering in her chest every time she heard the clicking and popping of various tubes and compacts, stopping for a moment when she felt the fine, liquid brush sweep under her eyes in a single fluid motion, then rushing back like a drum when Karui told her to open up.

The sensation of slightly powdery skin sliding against skin was unnerving, but when she realised that both her girlfriends were strategically positioned to completely hide the mirror from her desperate eyes all discomfort vanished.

Before she could build up the rant she had planned, Karui snickered and waved a mascara wand in her face. "Look up for a sec and try not to blink."

"You'd better let me see as soon as you're done," she muttered, turning her gaze skyward.

Temari's soft chuckle brought a smile to her face, even as she was fighting to keep her eyes from flickering so hard that she had to imagine the mascara was going to end up washed away by her tears before any product stuck. "You look so fucking amazing sweetie, I hate it."

She laughed, hissing when it made Karui accidentally poke the corner of her eye – only on the lid, thank god – but still managed to say, "Such high praise!"

"You're just bitter 'cause you lost, loser." Luckily by the time Temari slapped her arm playfully, Karui had put the wand down and Hinata's eyes were spared any further torture. She blinked a few times to clear them and glanced back at the two loves of her life, both squashed onto the small dresser having a shoving match that was more endearing than it had any right to be. "Ok, ok-" Karui gave the blonde one last elbow and turned to Hinata with that wide, beautiful grin, "-you ready for this?"

Nodding so hard she gave herself a headrush, she practically dove to the mirror the second they jumped to their feet.

She looked… gorgeous. Never would she have chosen such a bold look for herself, but the subtle sweep of silver across her eyelids, with just a slight hint of glitter when she tilted her head, contrasted with the hard, electric blue streak clinging to her lower lids, _really_ brought out what she'd always considered her best feature.

Tears were definitely coming again, but this time it couldn't be for a better reason. She spun round to face Temari and Karui, both wearing identical grins, and wrapped an arm around each of their necks. "I love it, thank you so much!" She immediately released them, spinning back to stare at herself some more, mind suddenly filled with all the possibilities she could explore in this whole new avenue of artistic expression.

Karui stalked up behind her, throwing her arm across her shoulders and raising a brow. "You realise that Temari did literally nothing helpful, right?"

"I will _snap_ your fucking _neck_ -"


End file.
